The present invention relates to a card reader/writer for recording/reproducing data on a card like an ID card, a prepaid card, etc.
The use of ID cards and prepaid cards has become a popular practice. An ordinary card reader/writer houses within its body a transfer device to transfer magnetic card and a write/read means to record and read out magnetic data for recording and reproducing data on a magnetic card by means of magnetic head; where, a magnetic card is inserted from an inserting slit located at the front of body, and the writing/reading on the magnetic card is conducted while the magnetic card is transferred within the body.
FIG. 6 is side view of a conventional magnetic card reader/writer showing the cross section of its inside. In FIG. 6, 61 denotes a magnetic card, 62 a body, 62a a chassis of the body. At the front of the body 62 is an inserting slit 63 to accept the magnetic card 61, inside the body are transfer rollers 64, 65, 66 to transfer the magnetic card 61. Between the transfer rollers 64, 65, 66 are bases 67 and base covers 68 installed horizontally providing a small separation in between for guiding the magnetic card 61. At the inside of the inserting slit 63 are a blade 69 and a movable tubular component 70 installed restraining the magnetic card 61 from the upper and lower sides; the movable tubular component 70 is pushed up by a leaf spring 71 to have contact with the blade 69. When the magnetic card 61 is inserted to the inserting slit 63, the movable component 70 is pushed down by the magnetic card 61 for the thickness thereof. The up-down stroke of the movable component 70 is restricted to accept only a single leaf of magnetic card to avoid plurality of cards being inserted overlaid.
In a conventional constitution as described above, however, as the constituent components are installed on a single chassis most sections of the body 62 need to be disassembled when exchanging the blade 69 with a different version having different dimensions in order to comply with a specific thickness of cards to be handled, or when cleaning the card transfer rollers 64, 65, 66, or such other occasions; doing such component replacing work or maintenance servicing at a place where a card reader/writer is on duty is a difficult and troublesome issue with the prior art setup.